SHOP TALK or Happy Accidents

This week was a grocery shopping week like no other. I write a national recipe column (called THE RECIPE DOCTOR, not so coincidentally) and three out of every four columns include a food photo to go with the recipe column. I scheduled a food shoot in my kitchen for Thursday and I was breaking in a new food photographer (don't worry I didn't scare off the old photographer with my healthy cooking, he moved out of the area...at least I don't think I scared him off...)

This photographer gave me a set price for him to come over and then we would shoot as many food dishes as I had whipped up that day. Being the thrifty columnist that I am, I was determined to get 4 months worth of food photographs (doing the math that's about 12 total pictures). I promised to feed him well and give him a doggy platter to go home with.

Needless to say I was cooking for DAYS! Which means I was grocery shopping for DAYS! Hundreds of dollars later (and I mean HUNDREDS) and hundreds of dishes later (that I had to wash)...I met my goal. We actually photographed 12 dishes in about 2 1/2 hours. This new photographer was fun to work with too, I told him to have fun with this and if he wanted to do something creative, to go for it. Far be it for me (the cook, dishwasher, and very cheap food stylist) to interfer with artistic expression.

While "plating" (that's shop talk for arranging the food on the plate hopefully in an attractive way) one of the desserts, we had what the photographer called a "happy accident". I was trying to artistically drizzle hot fudge sauce on the plate before I placed the slice of candy cane cheesecake on top. I had tried one time and it wasn't quite what we had in mind. Then the photographer was convinced he had "the touch" and then tried twice with even worse results. I knew what I had to do then...I whipped that spoon around in that small bowl of hot fudge and with all the drizzle confidence I could muster, I plopped the hot fudge on the plate and to our complete and utter surprise, my supposed drizzle of hot fudge had miraculously plopped itself onto the plate in the shape of a heart!

So there you go...a happy accident. Too bad this was the picture for the Christmas column and not the Valentine column!

Related Topics: Holiday Recipes Makeover, Light holiday eating